From India, To The World: Uber To Host Its ‘World Lab’ In The Country To Drive Next-Gen Transportation

Uber, the startup that pioneered the peer-to-peer ride-sharing revolution across the world, is considering proposals to make India the global hub for its research & development (R&D) activities, reports Business Standard.

The startup, now valued at over $70 billion, is looking to incubate startups in India that will tackle emerging problems in transport and mobility,

“We want to find the best talent in an innovative way to solve the problems of mobility and transportation. We are definitely considering incubating many start-ups within Uber in the future and have some kind of incubation model. We are looking at doubling our R&D team in 2019 and this could be in the thousands,” said Apurva Dalal, head of engineering at Uber India.

Earlier it was reported that Uber was also revamping its human resource at its R&D centres in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

“We have started to push for localisation of our products and initiatives…the tech centre we have in Bangalore and Hyderabad are scaling up rapidly. There is tremendous amount of pressure on those teams to hire but more importantly they are building products for markets like India from those centres,” said Pradeep Parameswaran, Uber head for India & South Asia markets.

Uber Lite, developed by teams based in India, is 85 per cent lighter than the usual Uber app. This app allows customers who have smartphones with low processing power and in regions with low internet connectivity, to book rides on the app. Uber Lite is useful not just in India but is also being exported to Brazil, Mexico, and much of Africa.

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